second scene - a terrible catastrophe befalls the world, leaving it half ruined. the cataclysm engulfs victims from all social classes, even his holiness the pope

The world now appears half destroyed (“a big city half in ruins”). Our Lady’s intervention prevented a total destruction, but even so there has been a lot of destruction. Obviously men did not do penance and the chastisement was unleashed.

The key person in this scene is the Holy Father. Together with many “other bishops, priests, and religious” he climbs “a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big cross of rough-hewn trunks”. Yet, before arriving there, the Pope passes through “a big city half in ruins, and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way”. Cardinal Ratzinger comments: “The Pope seems to walk ahead of the others, trembling and suffering because of all the horrors around him. Not only do the houses of the city lie half in ruins, but he makes his way among the corpses of the dead.” This scene is one of frightful catastrophe.

It would hardly be exaggerating to say it is apocalyptic, as also the angel who unleashed it is apocalyptic. But keep in mind that this vision is not about the end of the world, as Cardinal Ratzinger wisely noted in his “Theological Commentary”.

What then happened? Here is the Cardinal’s interpretation: “The history of an entire century can be seen represented in this image. Just as the places of the earth are synthesised in the two images of the mountain and the city, and are directed towards the cross, so too time is presented in a compressed way. In the vision we can recognise the 20^th century as a century of martyrs, a century of suffering and persecution for the Church, a century of world wars and many local wars.”

In other words, that which the vision represents as one single scene is actually a montage of various scenes of persecution of the Church and destruction (wars) which unfold along the century — wars and persecutions which unfortunately are far from over. Suffice it to keep in mind the persecutions of Catholics going on even today in many parts of the world and the many conflicts still existing between peoples and nations.

Cardinal Ratzinger sees the arduous climb up the mountain also as a telescoping of decades of history. In the arduous ascent of the mountain “we can undoubtedly see a convergence of different Popes. Beginning from Pius X up to the present Pope, they all shared the sufferings of the century and strove to go forward through all the anguish along the path which leads to the Cross. In the vision, the Pope too is killed along with the martyrs”.

Then he adds: “When, after the attempted assassination on 13 May 1981, the Holy Father had the text of the third part of the ‘secret’ brought to him, was it not inevitable that he should see in it his own fate?”

While this correlation between the third part of the Secret and the assassination attempt on John Paul II is not agreed on by all Catholic commentators, we could not fail respectfully to mention it here. Some writers, while not excluding the attack from the context of persecution of the Church, nonetheless prefer to see the figure of “a Bishop dressed in white” as a symbol of several popes rather than just one in particular. This is the opinion of Bishop Serafim de Sousa Ferreira e Silva, Bishop of Leiria-Fatima [reported in Corriere della Sera, 27 June 2000]. And it is also the view of Cardinal Ratzinger himself, as can be seen from his above comments.

At any rate, the long sequence of martyrs described in the third part of the Secret – which includes “lay people of different ranks and positions – continues in our days. Nor can we be surprised if  the hatred of the enemies of the Faith provokes them to more attacks on an even greater scale.

In the vision a “group of soldiers” “fired bullets and arrows” at the Holy Father and those with him, killing them one after the other. Who are the human agents of this violence and destruction symbolically represented by the soldiers?

As indicated by Sr. Lucia in her letter to John Paul II on 12 May 1982, the third part of the Secret must be interpreted in light of the second part, specifically in light of these words of Our Lady: “If they heed my requests Russia will convert and there will be peace; if not, it will spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church; the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer and many nations will be annihilated.” On this Sr Lucia herself comments: “Since we did not heed this appeal of the Message, we see that it has been fulfilled, Russia has invaded the world with her errors. And if we have not yet seen the complete fulfilment of the final part of this prophecy, we are going towards it little by little with great strides.”

In his first mention of the third part of the Secret on 13 May 2000 at Fatima, Cardinal Sodano included amongst the human agents of these persecutions all the atheistic political systems of the twentieth century. And he did so with good reason, for systems like Socialism and Nazism are but veiled or open lackeys of Communism, even when they portray themselves as the very opponents of Communism. These atheistic systems of the twentieth century have not died. They have simply evolved into new forms better adapted to twenty-first century conditions.

The whole world has become secularised and amoral; it is in open revolt against God and His Holy Church. The errors of Communism abound. It is enough to think of abortion, free love, the legalisation of homosexual unions, the abolition of private property, and the most radical egalitarianism which continues to promote class warfare in order to destroy just, proportional and harmonious social inequalities.

What will be the fruit of these martyrdoms of the past, present and future? The third scene of the vision gives us an indication.